The label “Christian” is very broadly used to refer to those claiming to follow Jesus Christ, but it was not always so. Early in the first century, Jewish disciples were called followers of “the Way.” In Acts 9, Saul, a zealous persecutor of Christ’s disciples, “went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.”
“The Way” was a fit label for Christ’s disciples since Jesus taught that he is “the Way,” the only way, to God the Father.
Many Jewish believers who fled Saul’s campaign of persecution took up residence in countries around the eastern Mediterranean shore. In this way, the gospel first spread beyond Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. When a report reached the church leaders in Jerusalem that Gentiles in Antioch had come to faith in Christ, they dispatched a godly man named Barnabas to check it out. To Barnabas’ delight, it was true, and he continued the gospel work among the Gentiles, enlisting the help of the newly converted Saul. “And in Antioch,” Acts 11:26 says, “the disciples were first called Christians.”
I had been taught that the label “Christian” meant “little Christs,” and that it was first used as an insult. Nonetheless, “little Christs” seems a fit label since the Bible teaches that God predestined people to salvation to be conformed to the image of his Son, Jesus Christ. His Holy Spirit comes to reside in them to perform the transforming work. But as appealing as what I was taught is, there is no grammatical support. In English we have diminutive suffixes. We call a small book a booklet, a baby duck, a duckling, and a tiny drop of water a droplet. Koine Greek, the original language of the New Testament, also has diminutive suffixes, but there is not one attached to the Greek word translated “Christian.”
Historians suspect that Christians were so named because the word others heard most frequently from them was “Christ.” Their conduct and conversation identified them with Christ, which is a very good thing.
I pray that my conduct and my conversation identify me with Christ as befits the label “Christian.”
